Softkey Disney Early Learning: Winnie The Pooh Toddler Childrens Software

The activities include hide and seek, find the object and musical clouds, and each activity has instructions on what to do and a time limit so your child doesn't get bored. You can also enter the Superdome where the characters can meet up with Noo-Noo (the hoover!) to make some mess with tubby custard and tubby toast.

This game has wonderful graphics and lots of colour and familiar sound; each Teletubby sings their own tune as they go about their business and the theme tune is played often. Play with the Teletubbies is great for children aged two to four, teaching colours, counting and co-ordination.

Younger players will require supervision and assistance, as they will need to use the mouse to play most games. However, the reward true tubby fans get will far outweigh the effort as they see their favourite Teletubby come to life before their very eyes.

To link the game to the TV programme the makers have added a number of short video clips of children going about daily life. This game is fantastic: they haven't forgotten a thing. --Lynne Bradding

The package contains four games, each of which can be accessed by visiting a different room. The Canister Can-Can Game is probably one of the highlights of the package--eight kitchen canisters create an octave for budding musicians, while taps, kettles and even a musical toaster add variety. A playback facility also allows youngsters to record their compositions and play them back at the click of a mouse.

Logically, the "Telly Game" takes place in the living room, the "Crayon Criss-Cross Game" in Rolie's bedroom and the "Can-Can Canister Game" in the kitchen. The Telly Game tests matching, as youngsters have to drag and drop items of furniture into their corresponding shapes. The colouring game promotes hand-to-eye co-ordination and cause-and-effect relationships, as players grab a passing crayon, then fill in the corresponding polka dot. Level one deals with primary colours, while levels two and three develop the idea of mixing two colours to create another--use the blue then the red crayons to colour in the purple one, and so on.

The final game cannot be accessed until the other three have been completed. To play the "Scuba Splash Game" players grab objects as they float around the bath--increasing levels of difficulty mean objects move faster, more bubbles make it harder for Rolie to stay under water, and fish act as obstacles.

The package is aimed at giving children different environments to learn from, rather than the traditional ABC approach to pre-school education. The format is fun and colourful, if unorthodox, and supports basic skills acquisition. The background music is repetitive and unimaginative, and though the graphics are very good, they tend to pixellate a little in places. Occasionally, the use of Flash means the program "sticks" (this was tested on a standard home PC) but generally the movements and screens flow easily.

These minor annoyances aside, this is good, wholesome, if somewhat surreal, family fun, and though two to three-year-olds will definitely need assistance, a competent four or five-year-old will master the tasks on hand. --Lucie Naylor

With all five of these elements, your baby can initiate action by simply mashing a key (or five) on the keyboard. Music, colors, opposites, and counting are just a few of the many concepts these activities explore. A couple of smart touches are buttons a parent can click to control the play. A Good Job button causes the character to give positive feedback to your baby. The Do It Again button is for that thing near and dear to all babies' hearts: repetition. It exists so parents can make balloons float out of Pooh's honey pot ad infinitum, which is just how babies likes it.

Don't expect to park your baby alone with this CD-ROM. It works best when parents participate, using the mouse to move between activities and control the play. Fortunately, little surprises, flawless animation, and well-developed characters make this an easy one for parents to enjoy. Watching Piglet's fidgety hands and hearing Eeyore sigh as a rain cloud drenches his masterpiece is like being with old friends. Designers used a quilt motif as the central visual element of this program, and it's an appropriate choice. Winnie the Pooh Baby is as comfy as a well-worn baby blanket. (Ages 9 to 24 months) --Anne Erickson

Especially entertaining are the parts of the program that deal with letters and numbers: children pop balloons to raise the characters higher, helping Pooh along the way. Another pleasant addition: the colouring book can be printed on regular paper, and there are Avery stickers and flashcards included.

From sing-alongs to opposites, all the activities are easy for toddlers to decipher, as icons are big enough to handle even for those just learning mouse skills. There are Pooh's house to explore, guessing games to play, and musical instruments to play--more than enough for a rainy afternoon or two. Kids will love it, and what they learn will please you too. --Jill Lightner

Movie-quality animation and an astounding number of multi-level, age-appropriate maths games make this software a classic. Whether kids are playing the Dungeon Games, Agrabah Games, Magical Carnival Games or Pyramid Games, they'll love the challenging gameplay and adventure this unique software offers.

Games range from Yazoul's Number Wall, which has kids making mental computations by using addition and subtraction skills to a fast-paced, virtual marble game, Square Up, where geometry and logical reasoning rule as kids race the carnival barker by being the first to create squares in a challenging grid screen. No flying carpet required, just bring along your maths skills for hours of challenging maths fun.(Ages 6 to 9) --Tina Velgos

The action begins on a night-time street, with Mickey searching for a news story. Click all around and you'll find various activities. Mickey crops up during these from time to time to take snaps for the paper. You can access his work and use it as a source to print extension activities to do away from the computer. Among the many activities Hide and Seek is good fun. A weasel ducks into an alley, and a policeman is there to help you find the weasel by letting you know the kind of object the weasel is hiding behind and what it sounds like. You then click around until you find the weasel who then pops out, taunts you, and runs to hide again.

A favourite part of the software is sure to be the Neon Puzzler, a freeform drawing area in which you place differently shaped strips--like neon lights--onto a board to make pictures. There are templates to follow, or you can create your own designs. --Sandra Vogel

The emphasis is less on education than it is on fun. For example in Goofy's Body Shop you can build a car bringing the different parts together and painting your creation. Later you can sit in Huey, Dewey and Louie's car playing around with windscreen wipers, fiddling with the glove compartment and indicators, tooting the horn at passing Disney characters and so on. There are also more traditional learning activities. Pop into the cafe, and you'll find matching games, activities that teach about relative size, naming games and more.

Several children can register to use the software, and it tailors itself to their particular needs, so that the more adept won't get frustrated by repeating tasks they've completed successfully. There is plenty for parents here too including on-board information pages explaining the reasoning behind each activity, listing the skills it teaches, and providing instructions on how to work with in each activity.

Disney's Pre-school Adventures with Mickey is well worth a look. It is neatly designed, its activities have been thoughtfully put together, and the help for parents is a real plus. --Sandra Vogel

Help "Shape Sorting" in Rabbit's kitchen, and develop sorting, categorisation, size/scale recognition, shapes and colour skills. Join the "Treasure Hunt" with Tigger, and learn strategic thinking, problem solving, listening skills and following directions. Create your own "Thoughtful Spot" and develop visual creativity. Create "Number Balloons" in Roo's Carnival Booth, and learn number recognition, counting and simple addition and subtraction. Join Eeyore in his "Musical Mix and Match", and try music composition. Go to "Owl's Workshop" in his library and let your child learn about letter identification in words, word recognition, early reading and spelling.

It is also possible to print out workbook pages, stickers, ID cards, flashcards and much more, which "...provide hours of creative play while helping your child practice all the skills learned in Disney's Winnie the Pooh Infants".--Susan Naylor

Once enough clues have been collected, players decide who's to blame, then check to see if the guess is right in an action sequence that closes play. Three levels of difficulty are available, and each offers increasing pressure in the form of red-herring clues and harder challenges to acquire Scooby Snacks. Installation is very simple, and the CD-ROM comes with several Scooby-related goodies like a printable poster and online previews of upcoming movies. (Ages 5 to 10) --Rob Lightner